A Critique on Philippine Mainstream Media Through the Use of Online Memes

Our project aims to expose and oppose the several different issues within today’s mainstream media in the Philippines. We highlighted what we believe are its most controversial issues; commercialism of the film industry, sensationalism in the news, media workers’ labor rights, redtagging and bias against activists, anti-LGBT homophobia, star system, content censorship and media blackouts, discourse on ‘indie’ vs. mainstream cinema, and the monopoly of power of the ruling elite.

Having seen the power of social media in ensuring the widest reach at the shortest period of time, we decided to use online memes as the medium for ourcritique.We were also greatly inspired by these Facebook pages: BerlinArtParasites(facebook.com/berlinartparasites), Thought Catalog (thoughtcatalog.com), as well as its localized version in the Philippines, Utot Catalog (facebook.com/UtotCatalog). All these online sources have gained a huge amount of following. Another local Facebook page that came to our attention is of Marcelo Santos III (facebook.com/AkoSiMarceloSantosIII). Each of hisposts and statuses reach tens of thousands of views, likes and shares. His online memes especially get the most attention. He livens up the typical Filipino humor with his opinions on love, inspirational quotes and religiousadvices. And Pinoys love it.

This is how we came up with the idea to mimic the form of his online memes while injecting
social relevance into its content. We shall then upload to our own Facebook accounts the ten memes we have created and little by little politicize our friends and followers online with regards to the current state of the mainstream media in the Philippines.Finally, we plan on collating all their reactions and comments on the memes we shall be releasing.